If there's one thing that HR could do better at, it's caring less about being perfect and shipping more HR product.

You see it all the time in the world of HR. We have big plans. Those big plans include the need for project planning, for meetings, vendor selection and deep thoughts. After awhile, the process takes over the original intent, which was trying to serve a need and make the people processes of our company just a little bit better.

We chase big, risk adverse, "get everyone on board" type of wins. The development of those big wins can stretch into a year - no make that two years - of prep.

What we ought to be chasing more is Minimal Viable Product, which in the software industry gets defined as this:

A minimum viable product (MVP) is a product with just enough features to satisfy early customers, and to provide feedback for future product development.

A minimum viable product has just enough core features to effectively deploy the product, and no more. Developers typically deploy the product to a subset of possible customers—such as early adopters thought to be more forgiving, more likely to give feedback, and able to grasp a product vision from an early prototype or marketing information. This strategy targets avoiding building products that customers do not want and seeks to maximize information about the customer per amount of money spent.

I'm looking at you, Workday. You're on notice, SAP. We love the big solution in the world of HR. But the risk of big failure goes up astronomically when implementation plans are more than 120 days and your own HR team hates the product - after 18 months of work to "customize" "configure" it.

Of course, we'd be a lot better off if we would simply either design/buy the simplest solution to a problem we think needs fixing by HR. To be clear, you can buy or design these minimalistic solutions. Which way you go depends a lot on what you are trying to fix/improve. The general rule of thumb is this related to the following types of HR "needs":

--Technology - always buy. Find the simplest solution you like, buy for the shortest term possible and roll the solution out. If you prove the use case and gain adoption, you can always seek to upgrade to something more complex, but if it fails, initially buying simple is the smart play. Recruiting, performance and system of record tech falls into the "buy" category.

--Teach - You're buying a tech solution for early forays into Learning and Development? You're kidding me, right? You know that you may build this and no one will come, right? You also know that the type of training you're generally asked for (manager and leadership training, etc.) is an area where you're the expert, right? hmmm....

--Process - You never buy process initially - you build. You never spend money on a consultant to help you in any area before you - the HR leader - has your own hot take related to what you want in this area.

Thinking in a Minimal Viable Product (MVP) way is simple. For tech buys, If you're first generation HR (no tech has existed), you should always find the simplest solution you like, buy for the shortest term possible and roll the solution out. Figure out what's usable and what's not. See this article from me for Best in Breed vs Suite considerations. Open API's mean you have limited worries about tying all the data together. Let's face it, you've got to grow up your HR function before you were going to use that data anyway. Buy small and learn. Maybe your v 2.0 tech solution is an upgrade to a more advanced provider. But you don't by the BMW when you're kid is learning to drive - you buy the used Camry.

Here's some lighting round notes on what Minimal Viable Product looks like in HR - for some specific areas/pain points:

--Manager/Leadership Training - You want to shop big and bring in an entire series from an outsourced partner. The concept of MVP says you should listen to the needs, then bootstrap a 2-hour class together on your own. At the very least, you order a single module of training from a provider (I like this one)and walk before you run.

--Redesigning Recruiting Process - Put the Visio chart down, Michelle. Dig into a job that represents a big area of challenge at your company and become the recruiter for that job for a month. Manage it like a project and be responsible personally for the outcomes. Nobody cares about your Visio chart - yet. They would love the personal attention you give them. Once you run a single, meaningful search in a experimental/different way, you'll have real world stories and experience to create a <shudder> Visio chart that's based on reality.

Doing Minimal Viable Product in HR means you plan less, get to doing, run the action you're taking through a cycle and evaluate. If it works, build on the 2.0 version with a bit more complexity. MVP in HR means you ship more product that's lighter than what's traditionally come out of your office.

Get busy shipping more HR product. Plan less. Play the Minimal Viable Product game and if you're going to fail, fail quickly.

Comments

Hi Kris, long time reader, first time commenter (sorry, had to do it)

I agree entirely with this post, you've taken practices out of my mind because that example of Management Training is exactly what we've done. We outsourced a training, I personally attended it, now I'm creating the content to teach around. I know it's gonna have some iterations as I facilitate each training sessions with managers, but it's a good way to hit the ground running in this front.

MVP when an HR function is small (or dated) IMO is the way to go, doesn't get you into too much trouble when you ask for funding to the C-level, then you install everything, get adopters, funding increases, you go big.

A very useful blog you have shared with us. RightPeople also provides web-based employee skill assessments tests, career development directions and HR solutions that are very helpful to make the recuitments and business process easy in an organisation.

I am all for change that is transformational and beneficial, and really believe that HR and HCM are prime areas that need new technology and thinking. People are and will remain central to any business. We have developed a platform based on this principle. The platform gives you all an end-to-end view of all that is related to your people in the form of analytics. Check it out - www.peoplehum.com/#bl